After 9/11, Kris Hidvegi, a young birder from Patagonia, Arizona, joins the U.S. Army to serve her country, and to follow in her famous father’s footsteps. Kris becomes an X-ray tech in Iraq. The story starts on the first day of the second half of her life, at the moment when she wakes up deaf, bloodied, and severely wounded by a roadside bomb.

This is a short essay about a futuristic unmanned submarine vehicle (USV), similar to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that have been flying for years. While unmanned aircraft cover the area above the surface of the earth, in this story, unmanned submarines cover the area below the surface of the oceans.

America's first attack submarine crewed by both men and women stalks a renegade Iranian sub. But another predator hides aboard the American sub, a murderer who has already left a trail of dead women behind on shore. While the two subs battle each other, NCIS agent Linus Schag must discover the murderer's identity before the killer's blood lust leads to the death of all onboard.